News of the Week for Oct. 2^nd, 2022

• Election 2022
• Abortion
• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Election 2022

 

The Democrats’ Problem, in Miniature
This is the Democratic Party’s core problem in miniature. Kelly knows that progressives are lunatics on this question. But she’s also sufficiently scared of those lunatics that she felt the need to backtrack and muddy the water, lest prominent people say mean things about her in the newspapers and on late-night TV.

The West: How the Senate can be won
Virtually all of the attention for the upcoming midterms, at least so far as control of the Senate is concerned, is on Pennsylvania. It’s Ground Zero for both parties, with Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin being the next most likely to produce surprises on Election Night. But could there be an upset brewing in Washington State?

Seaman sues fellow Las Vegas City Councilwoman Fiore, alleges assault
In the latest twist of a fractious relationship between Las Vegas City Council Members Victoria Seaman and Michele Fiore, Seaman filed a lawsuit Monday against Fiore alleging that she violently attacked Seaman and created a hostile and abusive workspace.

Connecticut will pay a security analyst 150k to monitor election memes for misinformation
The state is the latest hoping to quash online rumors before they impact the polls.

Something Brewing in the Northwest? Washington GOP Sen. Candidate Tiffany Smiley Polling Close to Democrat Murray
“Per the poll, 48.7% indicated they would vote for Murray, with 46.5% voting for Smiley. Those who were undecided made up 4.8%.”

Will the 2022 Midterms Really Be a Failure for the GOP?
Just six months ago, national Republicans were in a tremendous position to achieve robust gains in the House and the Senate in this upcoming election cycle.

Sometimes, you should quit while you’re behind
Sometimes, you just have to know when to quit. Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore was understandably irked when the campaign of state Treasurer Zach Conine filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission because Fiore had failed to list a business on her required annual financial disclosure statement.

The $250,000,000 Scandal That’s Wrecking Minnesota Democrats
There haven’t been many public polls in the Minnesota governor’s race, but Republican challenger Scott Jensen is within striking distance of Democrat incumbent Gov. Tim Walz, who is now dealing with fallout from what federal prosecutors call “the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme charged to date”

 

Abortion

Dobbs Decision

 

84-Year-Old Michigan Woman Handing Out Pro-Life Pamphlets Shot in the Back
The man who did it claimed it was an accident.

Pro-abortion students strike again after throwing urine on pro-life students
Pro-abortion students vandalized a pro-life memorial Tuesday afternoon, videos obtained by Campus Reform show. An unidentified student allegedly planted a new sign in front of the display that read ‘These flags represent how many HOT MOMS I’ve slept with this week.’

Planned Parenthood sex-ed partner promotes abortion pill to 10-year-olds
AMAZE is a website backed by Planned Parenthood filled with cartoon “sex-ed” videos designed to sell sex to children as young as 10. Live Action News has previously covered their semi-pornographic content, which includes heavy promotion of contraception and white-washing of abortion, as well as tacit endorsement of sex between adults and children.

 

Gun Rights

 

U.S. judge dismisses Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against gun makers, Mexico to appeal
A U.S. judge on Friday dismissed Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit seeking to hold U.S. gun manufacturers responsible for facilitating the trafficking of a deadly flood of weapons across the U.S.-Mexico border to drug cartels.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &“Green Energy”

 

California first state to ban natural gas heaters and furnaces
“While this strategy will clean the air for all Californians, it will also lead to reduced emissions in the many low-income and disadvantaged communities that experience greater levels of persistent air pollution.”

‘Nature’ Gets a Seat on the Board
The anthropomorphization of “nature” continues apace, this time with a corporation that sells beauty products called Faith in Nature naming “Nature” as a member of its board of directors.

Reality Bites Wind
It is an article of faith among many governments that we are in the midst of a transition from fossil fuel energy to “renewable” wind and solar. (Notably absent from this consensus are China, India and Russia.) In fact, no such transition is underway; wind and solar account for only a derisory portion of the world’s energy consumption, despite countless billions in subsidies. Nor will any such transition happen at any time in the future.

Cuba: the communist climate criminal kids ignore
When it comes to socialist and communist dictatorships, environmental groups fall silent. There is an unwillingness to criticise these oil-heavy nations for profiting off the black gold of fossil fuel, even when things go horribly wrong.

The British Government is Experimenting With Feeding African Kids Worms, Locusts, and Flies.
Forcing black kids to eat bugs. How very woke.

In a first, U.S. appoints a diplomat for plants and animals
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Dino Grandoni, a national environment reporter for The Washington Post, wrote the top of today’s newsletter. Below we have the latest on Hurricane Ian’s devastating impact in Florida.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Are Transplant Doctors Causing Brain Death?
A new and highly problematic means of obtaining organs is pushing the boundaries of the “dead donor rule,” which requires a vital organ donor to be truly dead before organs are retrieved. It also requires that no patient be killed for their organs.

 

War & Terror

 

Desperation: Russian Orthodox patriarch calls Russians to martyrdom in Ukraine to have sins “washed away”
Russia’s establishment has grown desperate enough in Ukraine to reach for the martyrdom argument. Patriarch Kirill, a Vladimir Putin crony, declared that Russian men who die for “Holy Russia” by participating in its genocide in Ukraine will have their sins “washed away”

Putin Grants Russian Citizenship to Edward Snowden
Vladimir Putin granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on Monday, nine years after the whistleblower fled to Russia.

Chinese, Russian warships spotted sailing near Alaskan island
Chinese and Russian warships conducted a joint patrol near Alaska last week and prompted a Coast Guard cutter and C-130 transport to monitor the ship movements, Coast Guard officials have revealed

Europe investigates ‘attacks’ on Russian gas pipelines to Europe
Europe was investigating on Tuesday what Germany, Denmark and Sweden said were attacks which had caused major leaks into the Baltic Sea from two Russian gas pipelines at the centre of an energy standoff.

Over 194,000 Russians flee call-up to neighboring countries
It took Vsevolod four days to drive from Moscow to Russia’s southern border with Georgia. He had to abandon his car at one point and continue on foot.

Solomon Islands rejects Biden’s Pacific outreach as China looms large
American efforts to rally Pacific island leaders at a White House summit this week were dealt a blow when the Solomon Islands said it would not endorse a joint declaration that the Biden administration plans to unveil.

NATO, EU leaders: We’ll retaliate for energy-related sabotage — and we’re looking at you, Russia
Did Vladimir Putin really order a hit on pipelines for his own gas exports just to score some points on the EU? Leaders in Europe and in NATO suspect that Russia conducted sabotage against the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, and they’re barely veiling the accusation. They warned of a “strong response” to any attacks on energy infrastructure after determining that the “leaks” were clearly intentional attacks

China Brings Home 162 Nuclear Scientists (Read: Spies) From New Mexico
As Russia threatens to use nukes against the U.S. “if the West attacks Russian territory,” a disturbing story has come out in recent days detailing the recruitment of over a hundred Chinese scientists who had worked at the nuclear research lab at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to bring whatever they may have learned back to China.

Russian ships and submarines were spotted near the Nord Stream pipeline
As Ed pointed out yesterday, there were indications from Danish and Swedish authorities that the leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines were the result of explosions, i.e. deliberate sabotage not accidents. All eyes immediately turned to Russia who has been playing games with gas deliveries through the pipelines for months. The NY Times created this graph showing the gas supply over time. As you can see, it took a sudden dip in June and then was up and down until this month when they shut it off indefinitely.

Oops! Kamala praises U.S. alliance with ‘Republic of North Korea’ in speech at DMZ
She almost pulled it off. The vice-president almost got through her Asia trip without any embarrassing incidents. She is flying back to Washington, D.C. as I write this. Kamala ended her trip to Asia with a gaffe. In the speech she delivered at the DMZ, the vice-president made an unfortunate gaffe when she said the United States has a “strong alliance” with “the Republic of North Korea.”

First Openly Transgender Army Officer Indicted for Trying to Give Soldiers’ Medical Info to Russia
The Army’s first openly transgender officer was indicted Thursday on charges of trying to provide American soldiers’ medical information to the Russian government.

US Needs to Renew Pacts With Pacific Island Nations as Bulwark Against China
Congress has a decision to make soon that will affect the nation’s ability to deter China and maintain the U.S. role in the Pacific.

Ukraine applies for fast-track NATO membership
President Zelensky’s response to Russia’s annexation of four regions of eastern Ukraine is to apply for a fast-track to NATO membership. Zelensky announced the decision in a video.

How the War in Ukraine Might End
In recent years, a small group of scholars has focussed on war-termination theory. They see reason to fear the possible outcomes in Ukraine.

Putin says U.S. created nuclear PRECEDENT by bombing Japan and vows to ‘smash’ the ‘satanic’ West: Rants that America is STILL occupying Germany, ‘Anglo-Saxons’ blew up Nord Stream and warns he’ll use ‘all forces’ to defend annexed Ukraine regions
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a scathing speech toward the West. Claimed U.S. set ‘precedent’ using nuclear weapons against Japan during WWII.

Putin vows to use ‘any means’ to defend annexed Ukraine regions in new nuke threat after biggest land grab since WW2
VLADIMIR Putin has vowed to use “any means” to defend the four Ukrainian regions annexed to Russia after the biggest land grab since World War Two.

Russian bombers capable of carrying nukes detected near Finland
The bombers, capable of carrying cruise missiles and strategic nuclear weapons, have been active in the Ukrainian war since Moscow invaded in February.

Putin ‘Annexes’ Four Parts of Ukraine After Sham Referendum
The so-called referendums occurred in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia.

Furious conscripts turn on their commander: Top officer ‘is beaten after telling reservists ”you are all cannon fodder, you are facing slaughter” as video shows punch-up in make-shift barracks
Russian lieutenant-colonel gets beaten up by conscripts in barracks brawl

Russians Cut Off at Lyman
The headlines say the Ukrainians have the Russians “surrounded” or “encircled” at Lyman, although from what I gather, the fact is that the Russians are cut off — can’t retreat, can’t get supplies or reinforcements — because the Ukrainians have all the routes into the town within artillery range, which is almost the same thing in a tactical sense, but not what most people think of when they see the word “surrounded.”

 

National

 

Vegans and vegetarians depressed twice as often as meat-eaters: new study
Vegetarians experience depressive episodes twice as frequently as meat eaters, according to a new study by Brazilian researchers published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Once-Hot Fake Meat Sees Sales Slide on Price and Being Too ‘Woke’
Deloitte reports deteriorating perceptions regarding plant-based meat.

Dozens of FBI Agents Raid Respected Pro-Life Advocate’s Home While His Wife, Seven Children Watch In Terror
“After asking them why they were at the house, the agents said they were there to arrest Mark. When Ryan-Marie asked for their warrant, ‘they said that they were going to take him whether they had a warrant or not’.”

Now the Commies Want to Abolish Your Kitchen
Add “abolish your kitchen” to the overlong list of things that commies want banned and rebuilt in their own sullen image.

Freaking Out Over Italy
We’re getting another confirmation today of a key definition in Power Line’s Lexicon of Leftist Terms: ‘”Populism” is when the wrong person or cause wins a free election”.’ The corollary is that every Republican candidate for president is Hitler, and now we learn that every Italian conservative is Mussolini.

Child mutilation is good business
TikTok is a great place to drum up business for gender reassignment surgery. As anybody who has followed the growing controversy surrounding radical gender ideology already knows, the teen oriented video platform is a “safe space” for confused and depressed teens to join a “community” and find validation. More importantly, it turns out to be a great place to exploit confused teens to make a buck.

California Über Alles?
The once-golden state is moving to impose its radical policies on the rest of the country.

The Economy Is Starting to Buckle
On the menu today: Remember how, at the end of July, President Biden and his team insisted that two consecutive quarters of shrinking GDP didn’t mean the country was in a recession? Well, companies big and small are announcing layoffs more frequently these days, indicating that we’re in a period of not-so-subtle belt-tightening. Meanwhile, the projections for energy costs ahead of this coming winter are increasingly ominous, the decline in unleaded-gasoline prices has stopped, and a long-simmering national housing shortage may be catching up with us. But hey, apparently Biden intends to tout his economic record as the midterm elections approach.

NASA’s DART Spacecraft Successfully Hits Target Asteroid
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collides with asteroid Dimorphos; scientists will now monitor changes in asteroid orbit.

Chattanooga children’s Pride event lets kids rub “mermaid” performer’s groin as other drag queens expose themselves
Yeah… a man dressed as the Little Mermaid invited children on stage to touch his mermaid costume and allowed the children to stroke his crotch while Princesses Anna and Elsa watch.

“Race Science” Comes Back—On the Left
If you thought the whole idea of “race science” went out of fashion with eugenics, you’d be wrong. The University of California at Santa Cruz (where Angela Davis remains a tenured professor) is currently looking to hire a professor of “Critical Race Science,” which is no doubt the best kind. Here’s some of the job listing.

Urban Devolution Continues
Major portions of many of our large, Democrat-run cities have become unlivable. Crime, lawlessness, and a general breakdown of the norms of civilization are rampant. Many young people in these cities are untrained, ignorant, and, one suspects, unemployable. But they don’t seem to mind, and our society apparently doesn’t expect more from them. Maybe liberals like the prospect of a generation with no prospects, who will forever be dependent on government.

“In Sum, the Problem With [the Same-Sex Marriage Cases] Is That They Recognize Only Two-Person Relationships”
A New York trial court judge concludes that polyamorous relationships are entitled to the sort of legal protection given to two-person relationships.

“FBI Misled Judge in Obtaining Warrant To Seize Hundreds of Safe Deposit Boxes”
I missed this post by Eric Boehm when it went up last month, and, embarrassingly, just found it because the L.A. Times wrote about it Friday. Better later than never, though, I suppose; here’s an excerpt, though you should read the whole thing

Sherman Oaks business owner: ‘People are afraid to come out’
Last week, Fox 11 LA did two stories on homelessness in Sherman Oaks and how that is impacting local businesses. As promised, last night they published a third report interviewing another local business owner. When Fox 11 showed up at the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill so did a homeless woman who has previously harassed employees and customers. Angela Marsden, who owns the bar, was clearly fed up. “People are afraid to come out. They’re afraid to spend their money here. They’re afraid to come here,” she said.

A UN-run speech police? Global censorship push gains momentum
Censorship has always been a favorite tool of rulers and elites to keep people in line. The appetite for censorship in Western societies has waxed and waned, but censors have had a hard time keeping control of speech, as the West is both legally and culturally disinclined to shut people up. The press has traditionally been a strong check on overt censorship, as have civil libertarians. Neither group can be counted on as supporters of free speech anymore, however.

McConnell Endorses Electoral Count Act Reform
On Tuesday, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell endorsed the bipartisan Electoral Count Act Reform bill that was introduced in the Senate on July 20.

Next up on the Supreme Court’s agenda: Affirmative action
Progressives who are still reeling from the end of Roe v Wade are already expecting the worst from the Supreme Court’s next term which starts next week. One of the big issues the court will be considering in the next term is affirmative action in college admissions.

Students recite woke pledge during white coat ceremony
University of Minnesota Medical School students recited an oath that commits to fighting oppression during a white coat ceremony. “Our institution is located on Dakota land…We commit to uprooting the legacy and perpetuation of structural violence deeply embedded within the health care system,” the students stated.

Six states sue to block Biden’s Academia bailout
The more the merrier? Just a couple of days after a private citizen filed a lawsuit to block Joe Biden’s student-loan debt forgiveness plan, six states have opened another legal front. Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Arkansas launched their own lawsuit, covering some of the same legal ground as Pacific Legal Foundation’s lawsuit on behalf of Frank Garrison

McDonald’s is releasing new Happy Meals for adults to recreate ‘one of the most nostalgic experiences’
You’re never too old for a Happy Meal, or at least that’s what McDonald’s is banking on. The fast food juggernaut this week announced plans to introduce adult-oriented meals — complete with a free toy — in an initiative designed to work off of the nostalgia of the restaurant’s famous red cardboard boxes.

Berkeley Develops Jewish-Free Zones
Nine different law student groups at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law, have begun this new academic year by amending bylaws to ensure that they will never invite any speakers that support Israel or Zionism.

American Bar Association Files Brief Supporting Disciplining Lawyers Who Offend Protected Groups
ABA files amicus brief in pending case testing legality of a Pennsylvania professional conduct rule muzzling lawyers’ supposedly offensive speech, clearly intended to mandate adherence to leftist race and other politics.

University of Florida history course requires an examination of privilege for a grade
A University of Florida summer course required students to write a ‘positionality statement’ for 10 percent of their grade. The class syllabus states, “??this course explores how issues of race, class, gender, exceptionality, sexual identity, language, geography, and religion have historically impacted U.S. education.”

Man Charged for Allegedly Stabbing NYC EMT to Death on the Street in Broad Daylight
The man “followed Russo-Elling before slamming her to the ground, mounting her and relentlessly stabbing her…”

Radical Gender Ideology Gives Us a 10-Year-Old ‘Trans’ Fashion Model
A 10-year-old named Noella McMaher has become the youngest transgender model ever to open and close a runway show during New York Fashion Week.

Female athletes are victimized by trans athletes, lawsuit argues
‘The reason that we’ve had women’s sports as a separate category for more than 50 years in our country is because we recognize that there are real, physical differences between males and females.’

The Real Gender Experiment
“Stop worrying about what happens if we let kids transition. Worry about what happens if we don’t,” writes Emily St. James at Vox.

Newsom signs bill declaring California a sanctuary for kidnappers
California governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 107 last night. The law is billed as making California a “sanctuary” state for transgender children, but the clear intent of the bill is to empower parents–including non-custodial parents–to flee to California with their child if they claim they are doing so to provide “gender affirming care.”

Federal Court: Critical Race Theory Is a ‘Resource’ To ‘Transform’ Judiciary
Rhode Island district court to host panel promoting CRT

Harris on Hurricane Ian: Biden Admin Will Give ‘Resources Based on Equity’ and to ‘Communities of Color’
No, Vice President. It doesn’t work that way.

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Padded cells, hidden cash, and official duties.

‘Doctors Never Warned Me of Side Effects’ With Hormone Therapy and Breast Implants, Detransitioner Says
Abel Garcia began transitioning from male to female at age 19 while living in Southern California. After attempting to live as a young woman for a few years, though, he decided to “detransition” to a man again—but not without resistance from those who readily had signed off on his hormone treatment and breast implant surgery in the first place.

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Will an underpopulation crisis crash the global economy?
For nearly sixty years, environmentalists have shrieked warnings about overpopulation and Peak Everything. What will happen if population falls significantly, however? Marian Tupy warns of an economic and political collapse in a new book, Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet.

Chipotle Mexican Grill will test robotic tortilla chip maker ‘Chippy’ in California restaurant
Chipotle Mexican Grill said it will test “Chippy,” an autonomous kitchen assistant made by Miso Robotics, next month in a California location.

The SEC’s Consistent Ambiguity
The agency should formalize rules for crypto and revise onerous climate-risk regulation before causing more business uncertainty.

The Impossibility of the Ham Sandwich
A lesson about comparative advantage.

What California Housing Prices Tell Us
I borrow today’s chart from a recent presentation from Peter Thiel (who I am having dinner with tonight in Palo Alto, as it happens). A close look reveals that the previously “red hot” housing market in California actually lags the truly dynamic metro areas of the country by a lot. In his full talk at the link, he explains how progressive “tolerance” of California’s homelessness and crime actually serves the self-interest (and housing values) of the progressives who supposedly “care” about the downtrodden.

Food Stamps and Work Disincentives
When the food-stamp program, known as SNAP, was first expanded nationally in the 1970s, just one in 50 Americans participated. Today that number has reached one in eight Americans. Unsurprisingly, the number of people benefiting from the program has increased dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic from 38 million to 41.5 million in FY2021.

 

International

 

Could Current Events Lead to the End of the EU as We Know It?
There have been almost 500 bombings in Sweden since the last election in 2018. The nation also has the highest rate of gun murders in the European Union (EU). Some see it as a symptom of answering the European Union call, led by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to let millions of refugees from Muslim countries flow into member states. In this year’s election, crime emerged as a top priority for voters for the first time.

China’s Crashing Population
Everyone remember back to The Population Bomb of the 1970s? It turns out the story of the second half of the 21st century may be the world’s population starting to crash. China’s population in 2100 may be below 500 million, less than half the population today. The projections below show in graphic form why China abruptly ended its rigid one-child policy a few years ago.

Hunga Tonga eruption put over 50B kilograms of water into the stratosphere
New study shows eruption plume circled the globe multiple times in the stratosphere.

“Grazie, Italia”: The Right wins again in Europe … media freaks out on schedule
Voters in yet another EU nation turned away from the leftward tilt of Brussels and more toward self-determination. Italy has elected its first right-wing coalition government in decades, and will almost certainly have its first female prime minister. Georgia Meloni led her Brothers of Italy into a dominant role in the coalition, as both CNN and Reuters describe this as “the most right-wing government since World War II”

The Belt and Road Initiative Runs into Trouble
Lingling Wei, chief China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, has written a remarkable piece on the troubles now facing China’s vaunted Belt and Road Initiative.

The only hot dog plant in Cuba produces only for tourism and dollars-only stores
The only hot dog plant in Cuba, located in Sancti Spiritus, produces products solely for tourism and dollars-only stores (MLC), according to Centrovision, a local television news report.

Rice and Bean Production Collapse While Hotel Rooms in Cuba Grow by 125 Percent
The discomfort of Cubans due to the lack of basic necessities and food in the face of the unbridled pace of construction and renovation of hotels is not just a mere perception. Official figures show that divestment in agriculture is a reality that coexists with wasted investment for tourism.

Venezuelan Narco-State Controls 25% of Global Trafficking: It Attacks U.S. with Drugs
A report by the Center for a Secure Free Society reveals that the Cartel of the Suns, led by the regime of Nicolas Maduro, now controls 25% of the global cocaine trade thanks to the help of Cuba, Russia, Iran and China.

Taiwan Has Ruled Out Wet Market as Covid Origin, Official Says
A senior Taiwanese public-health official said that the Covid-19 virus did not likely originate at the Wuhan wet market, indicating that his government has all but ruled out that explanation of the virus’s origins.

More Business Shifts from China to India as the Rift between the Countries Widens
The shift of international business away from an increasingly authoritarian and economically troubled China is continuing with Apple announcing it would move more iPhone manufacturing to India over the next few years.

New Zealand Prime Minister Calls for a Global Censorship System
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is the latest liberal leader to call for an international alliance to censor speech. Unsatisfied with the unprecedented corporate censorship of social media companies, leaders like Hillary Clinton have turned from private censorship to good old-fashioned state censorship. Speech regulation has become an article of faith on the left. Ardern used her speech this week to the United Nations General Assembly to call for censorship on a global scale.

How’s the Synod Going?
Pope Francis has inflicted on the Catholic Church a new Synod. The topic is Synodality. Here are images the Vatican itself is posting to the Synod’s Facebook page

The Mystery of Chernobyl’s Black Frogs

Mexico’s 1,500-year-old unknown pyramids
Built by indigenous masons, these 1,500-year-old pyramids are still standing strong, held together by sticky juice from the prickly pear cactus.

King’s College in London doing study on menopause in “trans-women”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but men pretending to be women do not get menopause.

UK teen died after ‘negative effects of online content’: coroner
A 14-year-old British girl died from an act of self harm while suffering from the “negative effects of online content”, a coroner said Friday in a case that shone a spotlight on social media companies.

Iranian woman pictured dining without a headscarf thrown in Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s old jail
A photo of Donya Rad’s silent protest after the death of Mahsa Amini went viral

 

Opinion

 

American Liberals Can’t Help Themselves in Talking about Giorgia Meloni
Newly elected Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni will be the first woman to lead Italy, a fact that is producing far less than the usual “girl power” cheers. That relative quiet is undoubtedly due to the fact that Italy now joins Great Britain (Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, Liz Truss) and Germany (Angela Merkel) in having chosen female heads of the elected government only from parties of the center-Right or Right. Meloni is undeniably a figure of the social Right.

On American History, Ron DeSantis Is Far Closer to the Truth Than Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten thinks she’s caught Ron DeSantis in a misdescription of American history.

The Bar for Competence Just Got Ten Feet Lower
The right-leaning Twitterverse is fawning over Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s response to Hurricane Ian, the tempestuous cyclone thrashing the Sunshine State. His response is being hailed as the quintessence of professionalism and presidential, unlike President Trump’s mediocre and often defensive response to the initial outbreak of coronavirus in the United States and the subsequent pandemic in early 2020.

One Reason Why Republicans Will Wish Democrats Still Had a House Majority Next Year
Republicans are hoping to take control of Congress in 2023 following the midterm elections. But perhaps, they should be careful what they wish for.

Inequality in America Is Less Than It Seems
Phil Gramm’s new book makes the case that the official statistics overstate inequality in America and understate progress and mobility.

After sharp right turn, U.S. Supreme Court conservatives step on the gas
The U.S. Supreme Court last March rebuffed an emergency request by North Carolina Republicans to allow the use in November’s congressional elections of an electoral map they drew that a lower court invalidated for unlawfully disadvantaging Democrats.

Affirmative action forever or not?
Linda Brown was the young girl who gave her name to the four cases consolidated for consideration in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court case that effectively invalidated the regime of public school segregation. She died in 2018 at the age of 75 or 76. Neil Genzlinger’s New York Times obituary recounted her story.

Trans treatments are the new lobotomy
It’s no secret that transitioning to something you are not is a fad. By this I do not mean that nobody experiences genuine dysphorias that require treatment, and I freely admit that my experience and education are insufficient to the task of developing treatment plans for people who are genuinely suffering from what appears to me to be a serious mental health problem. Dancing around a bit more to cover myself, I will also emphasize that calling dysphoria a mental illness is not a slam or slander: mental health problems run in my family and they are serious conditions that need treatment.